Here are 19 of the week’s best photos

By Washington Post Staff | Mar. 27, 2020

People practice social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic; Wuhan, China, epicenter of the virus’s outbreak, has allowed car producers and auto part suppliers to resume work; Pope Francis delivers a blessing from an empty St. Peter’s Square. Here’s a look at 19 of the best photos from the week, selected by photo editors at The Washington Post.

Matt McClain/The Washington Post

March 22, 2020 | Springfield, Va.

Dressed in a dinosaur costume, Erin Bender, 15, walks her dog, Penny. Bender was inspired to wear the costume after her mother saw others in the neighborhood wearing unicorn outfits, as many people stayed indoors because of the coronavirus.

Matt McClain/The Washington Post

March 20, 2020 | Palo Alto, Calif.

Hearing the vuvuzela horn played by Tom Culbertson, center, families come out to the street to meet their neighbors, employing appropriate social-distancing behavior during the coronavirus outbreak.

Melina Mara/The Washington Post

March 25, 2020 | Mount Rainier, Md.

Jodi Beder plays music on the cello from her front porch as locals listen from the sidewalk while practicing social distancing.

Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post

March 20, 2020 | Arlington, Va.

Anna Epstein, 39, left; her daughter Ridley, 9; and her mother, Donna Forsman, 78, greet one another during a through-the-door visit at Brookdale Arlington Senior Living that closed to visitors because of the pandemic.

Fire crews from Howard County and Carroll County battle a house fire. The structure burned to the ground within an hour.

Doug Kapustin/For The Washington Post

March 22, 2020 | Rabat, Morocco

A health ministry worker disinfects a man walking a dog and carrying a mat. A public health state of emergency went into effect in the Muslim-majority country, and security forces and the army have been deployed on the streets to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images

March 26, 2020 | Kampala, Uganda

A police officer chases street vendors after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni directed the public to stay home for 32 days starting March 22 to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

AFP/Getty Images

March 27, 2020 | Cinisello Balsamo, Italy

Coffins arriving from the Bergamo area, where the coronavirus has infected many victims, are unloaded from a military truck at the cemetery.

Claudio Furlan/AP

March 23, 2020 | Washington, D.C.

Volunteers wear hoods, to make sure their masks fit, during training for the D.C. Medical Reserve Corps at the D.C. Armory.

Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post

March 24, 2020 | Washington, D.C.

Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.V.), center, talks to reporters, using social distancing, in the U.S. Capitol before the Senate votes on a coronavirus relief package at the U.S. Capitol.

John McDonnell/The Washington Post

March 24, 2020 | Washington, D.C.

Members of the press and White House staffers are stopped for medical screening and temperature checks ahead of a task force briefing at the White House.

Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post

March 24, 2020 | Wuhan, China

Employees eat their lunch, while staying six feet from each other, at the Dongfeng Fengshen plant. Wuhan, which will lift the lockdown from the coronavirus on April 8, according to local media, has allowed car producers and auto part suppliers to resume work.

Getty Images

March 22, 2020 | Bethesda, Md.

Volunteer driver Phyllis Robinson maintains her distance as she delivers a steak dinner to the Tranter family. Medium Rare has been delivering free dinners to seniors and immune-compromised individuals from all three of their locations.

Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post

March 26, 2020 | Coruna, Spain

Health-care workers dealing with the coronavirus crisis look through the windows of the University Hospital. Spain's coronavirus death toll surged above 4,000, but the increase in both fatalities and new infections slowed, leaving officials hopeful a nationwide lockdown is starting to curb the spread of the disease.

Miguel Riopa/AFP/Getty Images

March 26, 2020 | Brussels

SAMU social members, wearing protective gear, speak with homeless people. Belgium said it wants to boost its coronavirus testing fivefold, to 10,000 per day from the 2,000 currently, which some doctors judge to be gravely insufficient.

AFP/Getty Images

March 25, 2020 | Mulhouse, France

French President Emmanuel Macron wears a face mask during his visit at the military field hospital. Macron launched a special military operation to help fight the novel coronavirus in one of the world's hardest-hit countries.

Mathieu Cugnot/AP

March 27, 2020 | Vatican

Pope Francis delivers an extraordinary "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) blessing, normally given only at Christmas and Easter, from an empty St. Peter's Square, as a response to the global coronavirus.

Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters

March 26, 2020 | Charrat, Switzerland

Heaters are placed between apricot trees in blossom to protect them from freezing when the temperatures drops below zero on cold spring nights, as the sun rises in the middle of the Swiss Alps.